September 10, 2025 11:16 AM UTC

Gabe Evans: Forget Medicaid Cuts, Hooray For Military Boondoggles!

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• by: Colorado Pols

A seemingly out-of-the-blue message last night from America’s Most Vulnerable Incumbent™ Rep. Gabe Evans invited us in for a closer look:

This is Evans praising what he calls “innovative technology” and the importance of “investing” your tax dollars in making our military “the strongest in the world.” Making this point about how awesome American military innovation is in Evans’ message is a photo of a pair of American fighter planes, F-22 Raptors to be nomenclaturally precise.

What’s peculiar about that, you ask? The F-22 program was cancelled in 2009 after billions in wasted cost overruns, and only a small fraction of the original exepected number of aircraft were produced. The National Interest blog wrote just last month about why the F-22 program failed, and the planes are now slated for retirement by 2030:

The reasons behind the F-22’s retirement are both practical and political. The F-22’s production line was closed in 2012, having been shuttered after fielding only 187 operational aircraft—far short of the Air Force’s original plan for 750 aircraft.

The official explanation for the production line closure was cost. In 2012, with the US military still dominant around the world, the Pentagon made the determination that a fifth-generation fighter was not an effective use of its limited resources. At that time, the United States was embroiled in two wars in the Middle East and was more focused on countering insurgents than on establishing air dominance over a near-peer adversary.

Each F-22 carried a substantial price tag, combined with equally substantial maintenance costs. With the prospect of large-scale production gone, the F-22’s cost per unit soared. Moreover, throughout the 2010s, the Pentagon’s shift in focus towards drones, counterterrorism, and the fifth-generation multirole fighter, the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, led to the atrophy of the F-22 fleet.

Now, the F-35 is itself another story of massive cost overruns and compromises in the final product, but at least the excessive costs of that program were shared with other nations. Not so with the F-22, which for national security reasons has never been exported. The point is, Gabe Evans couldn’t have come up with a worse example of American military “innovation” if he tried–except for perhaps another multibillion-dollar boondoggle like the Littoral Combat Ship. Yes, they’re pretty jets, but the $67 billion spent on a program now universally acknowledged to have been unnecessary would have paid for a lot of other things.

Like Medicaid. And food stamps. And renewable energy. Evans’ crucial vote to pass the Republican “We’re All Going To Die Act” budget bill lays responsibility for far greater cuts to programs that Evans’ constituents rely on than any economic benefit from increased military spending at Evans’ feet. To residents of Evans’ district unsure if they’re going to have health coverage in 2027, it’s a thoughtless slap in the face.

For a throwaway social media post, here’s one that actually says a lot about Gabe Evans. And nothing good.